Thought some of you may be interested in seeing me butcher my 64...


I got held up at work today waiting for some floorpans from heritage so I thought I would amuse myself by cutting the roof of my 64 thats been waiting patiently for some attention...


This is how it looked to start with, as you can see it needs a bit of work


First job was to brace the door gaps, its all going to get a bit floppy soon..


Then I marked out where the cuts where going to be, I decided a 4" chop would do, as its a small window bug anyway that should be plenty low enough



With all the marking out done and double checked it was time to bust out the disc cutter / hacksaw..



Then it was time to cut through the rear pillars, this bit is a tad tricky as there are many layers coming together



Then a quick trial fit of the rear section to check the height..


Once I was happy with that it was time to chop the door pillar section off the roof and realign it on the car..This bit is tricky as well as the top bit is considerably narrower than the bottom, so a couple of pie cuts and a squeeze was in order..


Another trial fit of the roof..


Next up it was off with the front section..


Then I cut off the required section of the donor roof


First trial fit of the roof revealed the front pillars needed more cut off


Second fit..






Thats all I had time to do today, next up I will get the back tacked into place, start the unenviable task of lining the swage lines and gutters up, then I can make the final cuts to the front section and line the pillars up..

that is awsome !!!!!!

Cheers bud

ha ha, thats so cool, i really must pop down and say hi, and take a looksie round matey :-) its so good to know there are local peeps, who are well into the air cooled side of things :-)

This thread reminds me of when i was bored last year, so done a 4.5" roof chop on my mk1 caddy pickup......no pics as yet, as i havent got any to be honest, lol, but its gonna b amazing :-)

I agree thoguh, lining the swage lines up, and pie cutting the posts etc is a pain in the ass......

Do you have to quarter the roof on a beetle to get it all to lign up again, i know when i dropped mine back on, i had to quarter the roof, and weld each corner back on, then let the donor skin onto the top of it, and then make everting else fit around it....chop door tops down etc.....

Im loving this though :-)

Yeah come down for a cuppa sometime dude, the door is always open to aircooledheads

Have you finished the caddy then, bet that looks well cool with a chop!

You can quarter bug roofs, some folks even cut it into 6! Im hoping to get away with keeping it in 2 bits and stretching the pillars but I may end up slicing the front section and welding a strip down the middle if the pillars look to angled which they sometimes do.

Then its just a matter of making the doors fit lol

I reckon this one could take a while....

Il stick some more pics when I get a chance to do some more

looking good mate.

do you live down the lane near the old swimming pool? I've done a bit of work next door and saw it in the drive a while back.

nah, the caddy is not done yet, though as soon as i find somewhere i can put it to work on it evenings etc, then i'll get back on it - oh, and when the bay is done and dusted.....

I need a workshop to rent, u know of any?? its gotta be cheap though, as it'll prob be hobby stuff only......

I know what ur saying about the doors though, i've offset cut one of mine, and was gonna offset cut a spare door, then weld the corners together, meaning hopefully having one joint at the top of the frame, instead of letting a section in.....bloody hard work though.

At the rate you was getting on with the bay the other day youl be done by the weekend dude

Sounds like a good plan on the doors, I havent got round looking at mine yet so havent really formulated a plan for them..

The only workshop I know of is my old one, its pretty small, you can just get a bus and a bug in there but thats it lol......that used to be £200 a month so possibly a bit much for a hobby. If I hear of anything il let you know bud.

cool man, cheers for that.....

Sadly i cant do anything else on the camper for another couple of weeks though, as its back outside the workshop with a tarpaulin over it again.....we got some real work to get on with now, lol.

But rest assured, as soon as she's welded up, and painted, then she'll be shipped off to the trimmers, and then i can play with the caddylack (so called because it lacks head room).

Where abouts is ur old workshop then matey, just outta interest?

Thats some REALLY impressive work.

Cheers lupton

Managed to get a bit more done this week

After much trial fitting of the front part of the roof and pie cutting the pillars I decided the only way I was going to get the pillars lined up nicely without them looking to angled was to slice the roof down the middle and stretch it slightly..


To make it easier to weld I then trimmed a bit off the joining edges so I could joggle both sides of the fill in strip.
Eventually the pillars and the gutters lined up very nicely..

Then I welded up the B posts..


Next I moved on to the side windows, as you can see in the earlier pics, after moving the roof back to line up with the back of the car you are left with big gaps...so bits where cut out of the donor roof and with a bit of jiggery pokery grafted into the gaps..





I also used sections from the donor roof to re align the swage lines at the rear..



Then for a break I bare metalled the door bottoms and was pleased to find just one small area in the corner of one needed a repair, so a fresh bit of 1.6mm steel was let in..


Thats about it for now folks, next job is to use cuts from the donor roof to finish re sculpturing the rear window...Should be fun!

inspiring, and i mean that.......god damn i need to get this camper finsihed so i can get on with the caddy again :-) good work, very neat, and all looks like it lines up perfectly :-)

hmmm......yeah, if u can get his number, i caould always try and sweet talk the missus? as u say though, prob a bit too much cash for me as a hobby, weekend shed tbh? I'll keep asking around i think :-)

Keep up the good work.....